US lawmakers urge Trump to axe plans to make plutonium available to nuclear industry

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to cancel a plan to make surplus plutonium from Cold War-era atomic bombs available as a fuel for nuclear power operators, saying its a proliferation risk. Trump signed executive orders in May that ordered the government to halt much of its existing program to dilute and dispose of surplus plutonium, and instead provide it as a fuel for advanced nuclear technologies. Last month Reuters reported the administration plans to make available about 20 metric tons of that plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads as a potential fuel for reactors.